Fire in Cebu kills student

CEBU CITY -- A college student died in the fire that hit a roadside community in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City last Saturday afternoon.

Firefighters found the body of Adrian Lorenzo Tecson, 17, on the ground floor of a boarding house where he had shared a room with his brother.

Two household workers said they knocked on his bedroom door when they found out about the fire, but heard no answer.

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For Herbee Jean Ederosas, 17, the last words she had from her boyfriend of four years came in a text message he sent a day before his last. “Asa ka (Where are you)?” the message read.

The Cebu City Government distributes up to P10,000 cash and a subsidy of P8,000 for the casket and funeral services, as part of a burial assistance program.

Clearing

But Department of Social Welfare Services (DSWS) Chief Ester Concha said the rules require that the beneficiaries must be residents of the city.

Tecson was not.

TANGLED. Firefighters check under a fallen billboard in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City to make sure a fire that ruined 24 houses no longer had any burning embers. (Sun.Star photo/Alan Tangcawan)

Like his girlfriend Ederosas, Tecson hailed from Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte; they had been together since high school. They enrolled in medical technology in the Cebu Doctors’ University during their freshman year, but Tecson switched to biology this year.

Firefighters initially thought that no one had died in the fire, which razed 24 houses and damaged two others, displacing an estimated 80 persons. They found Tecson last Saturday night, during a clearing operation.

His body was found on the ground floor of the two-story boarding house owned by Isabelita Rosales.

Rosales’s workers, Joseph Loreto and Zie Tamse, said they knocked on the locked door of Tecson’s room, but got no reply. They said they also tried to destroy the door, but failed as they had to leave the house hurriedly because the smoke grew thicker.

What started it?

A fire also hit the house of the family of Cebu City Councilor Roberto Cabarrubias in Barangay Basak Pardo yesterday afternoon.

But while it damaged a room in the upper floor of the two-storey house, the councilor’s 84-year-old mother Eriberta, whose room it was, survived.

SFO2 Pier Angelo Abellana said the flames ate a small portion of the room’s wall.

Faulty electrical wiring may have caused the fire, he added.

Residents nearby had put out the flames by the time the firefighters arrived.

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